A quick calculation tells us it will take another 247 years of the Monaco Grand Prix for the lead to change as many times as it just did in 500 miles of Indianapolis – 35 times! What a result, and what a potent and dignified response from Dario Franchitti. The spirit of Dan Wheldon at the Brickyard could be felt on the Sunday Afternoon/Evening sofa, a million miles away. All those sunglasses, the ‘DW’ prefix on every Dallara chassis and of course Dario’s tender words. Yeah, proper lump in the throat time.

We’re guessing if you watched you won’t be inclined to snob the 500. There is much, much more than keeping your boot in and turning left. All those awesome aerial shots of the Speedway (“Brought to you by Go-Daddy!”) laid out the sheer mind-boggling challenge of lapping at over 200mph, 200 times over. You simply cannot put a tyre an inch out of line. Not once.

Dario’s third win was his hardest won yet. If you tuned in early enough you would have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Dario being tipped in to a spin[ital]. That put him stone last. A little bit of strategy and a whole lot of speed took him to the front for the last three periods of racing, but only in the close company of Target Chip Ganassi Honda team-mate Scott Dixon. The two traded places time and time over until the final green flag just six laps from the end.

Then, just three corners from victory, Franchitti had to take his car higher than he would have wanted to leave space for F1 refugee Takuma Sato, bidding for first Japanese glory at the Brickyard. Dario was a smidge too high, but Takuma a smidge low and Sato’s Rahal-Letterman Honda span out in to the wall at the top of turn one. Yellow flags and a third win for Dario.

We hope you watched. We’ll be back with some thoughts and we’ll find some links for those of you who missed out.

Image © Shawn Gritzmacher

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